Two Years Before the Mast
or a universal custom, established for convenience, that the captain
should immediately hold an auction of his things, in which they are bid
off by the sailors, and the sums which they give are deducted from
their wages at the end of the voyage. In this way the trouble and risk
of keeping his things through the voyage are avoided, and the clothes
are usually sold for more than they would be worth on shore.
Accordingly, we had no sooner got the ship before the wind, than his
chest was brought up upon the forecastle, and the sale began. The
jackets and trowsers in which we had seen him dressed but a few days
before, were exposed and bid off while the life was hardly out of his
body, and his chest was taken aft and used as a store-chest, so that
there was nothing left which could be called his. Sailors have an
unwillingness to wear a dead man's clothes during the same voyage, and
they seldom do so unless they are in absolute want.
As is usual after a death, many stories were told about George. Some
had heard him say that he repented never having learned to swim, and
that he knew that he should meet his death by drowning. Another said
that he never knew any good to come of a voyage made against the will,
and the deceased man shipped and spent his advance and was afterwards
very unwilling to go, but not being able to refund, was obliged to sail
with us. A boy, too, who had become quite attached to him, said that
George talked to him during most of the watch on the night before,
about his mother and family at home, and this was the first time that
he had mentioned the subject during the voyage.
The night after this event, when I went to the galley to get a light, I
found the cook inclined to be talkative, so I sat down on the spars,
and gave him an opportunity to hold a yarn. I was the more inclined to
do so, as I found that he was full of the superstitions once more
common among seamen, and which the recent death had waked up in his
mind. He talked about George's having spoken of his friends, and said
he believed few men died without having a warning of it, which he
supported by a great many stories of dreams, and the unusual behavior
of men before death. From this he went on to other superstitions, the
Flying Dutchman, etc., and talked rather mysteriously, having something
evidently on his mind.
At length he put his head out of the galley and looked carefully about
to see if any one was within hearing, and being satisfied on that
point, asked me in a low tone--
"I say! you know what countryman 'e carpenter be?"
"Yes," said I; "he's a German."
"What kind of a German?" said the cook.
"He belongs to Bremen," said I.
"Are you sure o' dat?" said he.
I satisfied him on that point by saying that he could speak no language
but the German and English.
"I'm plaguy glad o' dat," said the cook. "I was mighty 'fraid he was a
Fin. I tell you what, I been plaguy civil to that man all the voyage."
I asked him the reason of this, and found that he was fully possessed
with the notion that Fins are wizards, and especially have power over
winds and storms. I tried to reason with him about it, but he had the
best of all arguments, that from experience, at hand, and was not to be
moved. He had been in a vessel at the Sandwich Islands, in which the
sail-maker was a Fin, and could do anything he was of a mind to. This
sail-maker kept a junk bottle in his berth, which was always just half
full of rum, though he got drunk upon it nearly every day. He had seen
him sit for hours together, talking to this bottle, which he stood up
before him on the table. The same man cut his throat in his berth, and
everybody said he was possessed.
He had heard of ships, too, beating up the gulf of Finland against a
head wind, and having a ship heave in sight astern, overhaul and pass
them, with as fair a wind as could blow, and all studding-sails out,
and find she was from Finland.
"Oh ho!" said he; "I've seen too much of them men to want to see 'em
'board a ship. If they can't have their own way, they'll play the
d---l with you."
As I still doubted, he said he would leave it to John, who was the
oldest seaman aboard, and would know, if anybody did. John, to be
sure, was the oldest, and at the same time the most ignorant, man in
the ship; but I consented to have him called. The cook stated the
matter to him, and John, as I anticipated, sided with the cook, and
said that he himself had been in a ship where they had a head wind for
a fortnight, and the captain found out at last that one of the men,
whom he had had some hard words with a short time before, was a Fin,
and immediately told him if he didn't stop the head wind he would shut
him down in the fore peak, and would not give him anything to eat. The
Fin held out for a day and a half, when he could not stand it any
longer, and did something or other which brought the wind round again,
and they let him up.
"There," said the cook, "what do you think o' dat?"
I told him I had no doubt it was true, and that it would have been odd
if the wind had not changed in fifteen days, Fin or no Fin.
"Oh," says he, "go 'way! You think, 'cause you been to college, you
know better than anybody. You know better than them as 'as seen it
with their own eyes. You wait till you've been to sea as long as I
have, and you'll know."
CHAPTER VII
JUAN FERNANDEZ--THE PACIFIC
We continued sailing along with a fair wind and fine weather until
Tuesday, Nov. 25th, when at daylight we saw the island of Juan
Fernandez, directly ahead, rising like a deep blue cloud out of the
sea. We were then probably nearly seventy miles from it; and so high
and so blue did it appear, that I mistook it for a cloud, resting over
the island, and looked for the island under it, until it gradually
turned to a deader and greener color, and I could mark the inequalities
upon its surface. At length we could distinguish trees and rocks; and
by the afternoon, this beautiful island lay fairly before us, and we
directed our course to the only harbor. Arriving at the entrance soon
after sun-down, we found a Chilian man-of-war brig, the only vessel,
coming out. She hailed us, and an officer on board, whom we supposed
to be an American, advised us to run in before night, and said that
they were bound to Valparaiso. We ran immediately for the anchorage,
but, owing to the winds which drew about the mountains and came to us
in flaws from every point of the compass, we did not come to an anchor
until nearly midnight. We had a boat ahead all the time that we were
working in, and those aboard were continually bracing the yards about
for every puff that struck us, until about 12 o'clock, when we came-to
in 40 fathoms water, and our anchor struck bottom for the first time
since we left Boston--one hundred and three days. We were then divided
into three watches, and thus stood out the remainder of the night.
I was called on deck to stand my watch at about three in the morning,
and I shall never forget the peculiar sensation which I experienced on
finding myself once more surrounded by land, feeling the night breeze
coming from off shore, and hearing the frogs and crickets. The
mountains seemed almost to hang over us, and apparently from the very
heart there came out, at regular intervals, a loud echoing sound, which
affected me as hardly human. We saw no lights, and could hardly
account for the sound, until the mate, who had been there before, told
us that it was the "Alerta" of the Spanish soldiers, who were stationed
over some convicts confined in caves nearly halfway up the mountain. At
the expiration of my watch I went below, feeling not a little anxious
for the day, that I might see more nearly, and perhaps tread upon, this
romantic, I may almost say, classic island.
When all hands were called it was nearly sunrise, and between that time
and breakfast, although quite busy on board in getting up water-casks,
etc., I had a good view of the objects about me. The harbor was nearly
land-locked, and at the head of it was a landing-place, protected by a
small breakwater of stones, upon which two large boats were hauled up,
with a sentry standing over them. Near this was a variety of huts or
cottages, nearly an hundred in number, the best of them built of mud
and white washed, but the greater part only Robinson Crusoe like--of
posts and branches of trees. The governor's house, as it is called,
was the most conspicuous, being large, with grated windows, plastered
walls, and roof of red tiles; yet, like all the rest, only of one
story. Near it was a small chapel, distinguished by a cross; and a
long, low brown-looking building, surrounded by something like a
palisade, from which an old and dingy-looking Chilian flag was flying.
This, of course, was dignified by the title of Presidio. A sentinel
was stationed at the chapel, another at the governor's house, and a few
soldiers armed with bayonets, looking rather ragged, with shoes out at
the toes, were strolling about among the houses, or waiting at the
landing-place for our boat to come ashore.
The mountains were high, but not so overhanging as they appeared to be
by starlight. They seemed to bear off towards the centre of the
island, and were green and well wooded, with some large, and, I am
told, exceedingly fertile valleys, with mule-tracks leading to
different parts of the island.
I cannot forget how my friend S---- and myself got the laugh of the
crew upon us for our eagerness to get on shore. The captain having
ordered the quarter-boat to be lowered, we both sprang down into the
forecastle, filled our jacket pockets with tobacco to barter with the
people ashore, and when the officer called for "four hands in the
boat," nearly broke our necks in our haste to be first over the side,
and had the pleasure of pulling ahead of the brig with a tow-line for a
half an hour, and coming on board again to be laughed at by the crew,
who had seen our manoeuvre.
After breakfast the second mate was ordered ashore with five hands to
fill the water-casks, and to my joy I was among the number. We pulled
ashore with the empty casks; and here again fortune favored me, for the
water was too thick and muddy to be put into the casks, and the
governor had sent men up to the head of the stream to clear it out for
us, which gave us nearly two hours of leisure. This leisure we
employed in wandering about among the houses, and eating a little fruit
which was offered to us. Ground apples, melons, grapes, strawberries of
an enormous size, and cherries, abounded here. The latter are said to
have been planted by Lord Anson. The soldiers were miserably clad, and
asked with some interest whether we had any shoes to sell on board. I
doubt very much if they had the means of buying them. They were very
eager to get tobacco, for which they gave shells, fruits, etc. Knives
also were in demand, but we were forbidden by the governor to let any
one have them, as he told us that all the people there, except the
soldiers and a few officers, were convicts sent from Valparaiso, and
that it was necessary to keep all weapons from their hands. The
island, it seems, belongs to Chili, and had been used by the government
as a sort of Botany Bay for nearly two years; and the governor--an
Englishman who had entered the Chilian navy--with a priest, half a
dozen task-masters, and a body of soldiers, were stationed there to
keep them in order. This was no easy task; and only a few months
before our arrival, a few of them had stolen a boat at night, boarded a
brig lying in the harbor, sent the captain and crew ashore in their
boat, and gone off to sea. We were informed of this, and loaded our
arms and kept strict watch on board through the night, and were careful